APEX

Dear all - has anyone had much experience of implementing SWF (Flash) charts in APEX/HTML DB?

The static examples work very well, but what I'd like to know is how to make them work with XML that is generated dynamically.

The ones I've tried all expect the XML from a file, and of course that file can contain a script to generate it.

Since right now isn't the best time for me to start learning Perl, PHP etc. (or Java for that matter), is it possible to have a PL/SQL function outputting XML that looks to the SWF generator file like an XML input file?

I've tried all sorts of combinations, ranging from straight PL/SQL function calls to application processes returning XML, which should look to the SWF generator file like a URL, but to no avail.

The general syntax is:

<OBJECT etc. etc.><EMBED SRC="path/swf_file.swf?input_file=path/xml_file.xml" other_parameters >

I'd be very interested to hear what your experiences have been of using these products.

Incidentally, before anyone asks, the reasons I'm investigating this are:

1. Almost nil penetration of the SVG plugin within my organisation, and hence the cost + delay of getting it installed;
2. Minor annoyances with the SVG charts such as the right-most x-axis label being chopped off, lack of control over y-axis labels, and the fact that you can't (as far as I know anyway) see a point's value by hovering over it (at least not without cheating and putting in some appropriate text as the 'link'), which seems to be very important to the users.

Personally, I think the SVG charts are pretty good, and of course you can do amazing things with SVG once you get to grips with the XML and especially in conjunction with JavaScript, but at the moment we can't use it.

Thanks for your time.

Regards,

John.